Important
by fangirl-with-a-tennant-fetish
Summary: A sad one-shot. Story about a girl with depression who travels with The Doctor. She feels unimportant and asks to go home. The Doctor agrees, and decides to visit her every 10 years. Except one year... (I had trouble with the ending and it wasn't supposed to be this long actually. Reviews are welcome! :D Enjoy)


**A**fter about a year and a half of travelling with the time-lord, the 15 year-old girl decided that she wasn't feeling important. On countless times, she told The Doctor **" I just want to be important…"** and The Doctor would smile and hug her and tell her that he'd never met someone who wasn't important before…  
>But it wasn't enough. She had been suffering from depression for a long while and she knew she needed to fill the void she'd been missing. Her parents were dead and she never had enough money to buy a plane ticket to live with her grandmother.<br>She pleaded to The Doctor to take her to Canada to finally be with a guardian… Not an alien who almost got her killed numerous times.

"So this is it then?" The Doctor pulled down on a handle connecting to the Tardis controls. This immediately stopped the Tardis from moving and it meant that she had landed.

"It seems like." The lonely girl grabbed her suitcase and headed for the door.

"I've gotta tell you, it's been a ride!" The Doctor smiled in his usual 'I'm happy for her' sort of way.

"Yeah, it has." She couldn't help the sadness in her tone.

"Is something wrong?" He placed his hands in his pockets, trying to not make this goodbye a long one.

"You've never used my name. You've never said my name. You've noticed me and talked to me but you've never used my name in a sentence before…" The brunette teenager rubbed the back of her neck.

"So?" The Doctor raised a brow.

"So… Girls like it when people use their names in a sentence. Hell, I think guys like it too… It makes them feel important…" She explained in her passive way.

"I don't think I need to use your name in a sentence. I'm always talking to you. It feels unnecessary." He shrugged, though he knew there was a good reason he never said her name aloud.

"Well, there's my stop… Goodbye Doctor." She wanted to hug the man but she didn't want to be a bother. He had just cleaned his suit and she figured her nervous sweat will ruin it.

"We'll see each-other again." He nodded.

"Alright… Goodbye." Without looking back, she swung open the doors of the Tardis and looked at the house in front of the box. It was a pretty-looking cottage and she knew she'd have lots of fun there.

The sound was heard. The sound of the Tardis materializing. She quickly jerked her head back, thinking she'd regret her decision to leave him. But she was too late… It was gone.

The teenager rung the doorbell and yelled "Grandma!... It's me!... I'm home!"

**Y**ears later, the Tardis materialized in the very same spot. The Doctor exited the machine in the same clothing he had worn on the day she left.

"There." He smiled contently "If everything went well, it should be 10 years later."  
>He rang the doorbell to the cottage and heard an old woman's voice "Come in…"<p>

"It cant be." He mumbled, shocked.  
>The Doctor opened the door, climbed the stairs and entered a room where an elderly lady laid in her bed, sick and unable to move. She had to have been 80 at least. Her hair which was once a brown was now salt and pepper, she had the same birthmark as the teenager The Doctor remembered and her eyes were the same colour. The Doctor has made the very horrible realization… The Tardis didn't send him 10 years into the future, she sent him 70!<p>

He didn't understand… The Tardis liked her more than any other of his companions. Why would she purposely send him 70 years into the future?

To see his once young companion like this was… Shocking.  
>He picked up one of her hands and sat down beside her bed.<p>

"It wasn't supposed to be like this. You were supposed to be 25, 25 and eager to go on more adventures… I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I've done. I'm sorry for taking you all over the universe except the one place you needed to go… Home… Everyone needs a home. And I was too selfish. I didn't want you to leave like all the others. But the truth is, you needed to feel important. You deserved to feel important. It means nothing when I say I've never met someone who wasn't important before… But you… You were the most important. Because you kept me stable. You were the one that made me feel important. And so, I'm sorry that it took me this long to tell you it. But just remember, please remember. Susan, you are important." There were tears in his eyes during this speech as he remembered all the times they shared. Everything he was feeling was all human. Remorse, regret, sadness. Everything clouded everything in his mind.

So much so that he didn't notice the bedroom door open.

"Bout time you met granny."

The Doctor swung around and saw a woman in the doorway. She had brown hair, brown eyes, a birthmark above her lip. Except she was in her mid-twenties.

"You always were erroneous." She smiled.

"Susan!" The Doctor grinned.

"Doctor!" Susan hugged him "My Doctor"

"You've grown!" The Doctor laughed.

Susan stopped hugging him and proceeded to slap him in his face.

"Ow!" He complained.

"10 years, Doctor! What's your excuse?" She crossed her arms.

"You became mean…" He rubbed his cheek.

"10 years!" Susan yelled.

"In my defense, I thought it was 70…" He mumbled.

"What?!" She exclaimed.

"I was wrong!" He reminded.

Susan's frown turned to a smile and a tear ran down her cheek. She hugged The Doctor yet again, this time tighter.  
>"Thank you."<p>

"No, Susan. Thank you."

The Doctor never told her of his granddaughter or why he never said that name aloud. To be honest, she reminded him of her. He thought that if he treated her like Susan, that… She'd leave him. But it turned out, she left anyways. 10 years later, she's 25. The Doctor has no problem saying her name. Because he knew, if asked, his granddaughter would return to the Tardis with him… She didn't. She had to stay behind and take care of her grandmother. The Doctor picked up that she was still battling depression but he didn't do much about it, he tried to assure her that she was important. But he knew that wouldn't help her much. The Doctor had a plan to return 10 years later just like he'd done before, then she'd join him when she was 35. He even told her of his plan.  
>Problem is… She never made it to 35.<p>

After her grandmother died, Susan took her own life.

The Doctor blames himself for her death.

**O**ne day, he visited her grave. He wanted to hold back his tears but he couldn't help thinking that... No more than an hour ago, she was 15 and flying with him through space. Now...

A little girl approached him. She couldn't have been more than 4 years old. She had brown hair and the same twinkle in her eye that Susan had.

"Mister." The girl started pulling on The Doctors coat. "Are you The Doctor?"

"Yes. Who're you?" He answered, wiping his face.

"Becky." She looked at the tombstone. "Mommy waited for you."

"Mommy?... Susan? Susan was your mother?" The Doctor asked.

"Yup. Mommy had to take happy candy. But the happy candy didn't help her all that much. So she's in heaven with my pet goldfish, Blue, because I forgot to feed him. When I want to talk to mommy, daddy says I have to go here." Becky smiled. "She told me stories. Of aliens and space."

"She did, did she? Did she mention daleks?" The Doctor replied.

"Derleks? Yup, she mentioned derleks and slybermen and ratta-rattacorgi-rattacorgiquefallapapotimus. It was a planet she said. She said lots of things." Becky started to cry. "I miss mommy."

"Becky. Becky. It's okay to cry. But I'm going to tell you something about your mom that nobody else knows. She was important. She was the most important human being ever. And you know what... You are too." The Doctor smiled.

Becky sniffled. "_Mommy used to say that to me."_


End file.
